Elaine Mary Wainwright (1948–2024) was an Australian theologian and biblical scholar. Wainwright was Richard Maclaurin Goodfellow Professor in Theology at the University of Auckland until her retirement at the end of 2014. She is known for her feminist scholarship in Matthew's gospel, and work on gender and healing within the Graeco-Roman world. Some of her most recent publications are The Bible in/and Popular Culture: A Creative Encounter (SBL, 2010), Women Healing/Healing Women: the Genderisation of Healing in Early Christianity (Equinox, 2006), and Shall We Look for Another: A Feminist Re-reading of the Matthean Jesus (Orbis, 1998). Wainwright initially studied at the University of Queensland and then obtained a master's degree at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a PhD at the École Biblique in Jerusalem. As Professor Emerita of Auckland University, Elaine Wainwright RSM, was a member of the Institute of the Sisters of Mercy in Australia and Papua New Guinea and was the international coordinator of the Mercy International Reflection Process (MIRP) in 2016. In 2024 Wainwright was honoured with a festschrift titled Habitats of the Basileia. Wainwright died peacefully on 5 July 2024.

Selected works

Books

Wainwright, Elaine M. Habitat, Human, and Holy: An Eco-Rhetorical Reading of the Gospel of Matthew. Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press Limited, 2017. ———, Robert J. Myles and Carlos Olivares, Matthew: An Introduction and Study Guide: The Basileia of the Heavens Is Near at Hand. T & T Clark Study Guides to the New Testament. London: T&T Clark, 2017. ——— Women Healing/Healing Women: The Genderisation of Healing in Early Christianity. London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2014. Wainwright, Elaine, Luiz Carlos Susin and Felix Wilfred (eds). Eco-theology. London: SCM, 2009. Wainwright, Elaine Mary. ''Shall We Look for Another? A Feminist Rereading of the Matthean Jesus''. The Bible & Liberation. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1998. ——— Towards a Feminist Critical Reading of the Gospel According to Matthew. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, Inc., 1991.

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